ISPConfig 2 or 3?

[zetnsh]

Hi there,

I am about to do a major server upgrade, involving 2 separate ISPConfig 2 installations. Each server is going to gain its own database server, and it would be nice if I could control both sets of servers from one control panel. I realise I'll probably have to recreate all the users and what have you, but is ISPConfig 3 my best bet for this?

Is there anything ISPConfig 3 can't do that v2 could?

Thanks in advance!

Neil

Neil S Hamilton
WebOutreach

[till]

Is there anything ISPConfig 3 can't do that v2 could?

ISPConfig 3 is different from ispconfig 2. ISPConfig 3 has much more features but not nescessarily all are the same then in ispconfig 2. The only thing that comes to my mind that ispconfig 3 does not has yet is a function for users to protect folders with .htaccess trough the controlpanel.

I realise I'll probably have to recreate all the users

If you switch to ispconfig 3, then yes. If you just migrate a ispconfig 2 install to a new server, then no.

[zetnsh]

I don't use the .htaccess via control panel feature so that's good! But what are it's features regarding multiple servers? Could it for example manage 2 different servers also with different database servers?

Thanks! Neil

[till]

You can manage as many servers as you want in ispconfig 3. It is required that every server runs its own mysql daemon as this is required for ispconfig itself, but you can have dedicated server mysql servers for the client databases.

[zetnsh]

Till, thanks for the help, but on trying it, I'm coming unstuck somewhere. I'm trying a test install on an Ubuntu 9.10 virtual machine. The problem is the server in question will have to connect to MySQL on a different machine, due to that machine's main database being a replicated copy of another one, hence I tried the install specifying a server other than localhost as the database server.

Once I'd granted privileges on that server using "WITH GRANT OPTION", the setup ran fine, but then when trying to log in to the control panel, I now get

Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Access denied for user 'ispconfig'@'10.43.0.70' (using password: YES) in /usr/local/ispconfig/interface/lib/classes/db_mysql.inc.php on line 73

Now, I don't know how ISPConfig3 works internally, but I am getting, in the MySQL server's error log, an access denied message every second, whilst HTTPD is running on the ISPConfig server.

Any idea where I go from here? Do I just need to start the install again? Is there an apache module that is somehow talking directly to MySQL?

Thanks, any help appreciated!

Neil

p.s. Forgot to mention, actually subscribed to HowtoForge, for anyone who is questioning it, it's worth it just to get rid of the site adverts, and the tutorials as PDFs are really useful. Haven't tried the VMWare images yet, but will soon!

[till]

Your type of setup is not supported, so it is possible that it will not work at all. ispconfig requires to have a mysql server on localhost for performance reasons on every node of a multiserver setup and ispconfg takes care about replicating its own databases internally.

As you installed ispconfig, did you enter the IP or the hostname of the mysql server?

[zetnsh]

Hi Till, thanks for replying.

I entered the hostname actually.

I'm wondering whether localhost would actually work. The reason I was trying to avoid running MySQL for ISPConfig on localhost was that that server when in production environment will itself needs to be a replication slave, and I wasn't sure whether creating standalone databases on a replication slave is a good idea or not.

I might well try this configuration and see if it works!

Thanks, Neil

[till]

I'm wondering whether localhost would actually work. The reason I was trying to avoid running MySQL for ISPConfig on localhost was that that server when in production environment will itself needs to be a replication slave, and I wasn't sure whether creating standalone databases on a replication slave is a good idea or not.

As far as I know, mysql trats every database independantly, so this should not cause any problems.

ISPConfig requires that you run the database of an instance on localhost, so if you select localhost when you reinstall ispconfig, then it should work. If you use a multiserver setup, ispconfig will take care on replicating its database automatically.

[zetnsh]

Thanks Till, I will let you know how it goes. I think you're right about the replication actually, just need to actually *test* it!